Bazza'Jo

Chapter 10

In the full light of the sun, Raina barely recognized Kal. He was standing in plain view on a big thick root and his eyes were squinted and puffy. He waved listlessly at her and forced a smile.

"It's very early in the morning." Was all he had to say, and didn't speak another word to her until he'd devoured the sweetbread and had a good stretch. Raina stood on one foot on the thinnest root she could find while she waited for him to be ready. A few minutes later he wordlessly waved for her to follow him.

"Sorry Kal, I'm really not dressed for hunting." Raina picked herself up off the branch where she'd tripped on her pant-leg after a short travel. They weren't very high up, but the slip gave her a bit of a scare anyway. She tried to shrug it off so Kal wouldn't notice. 

"You're never dressed for hunting. We've got to get you some proper clothes, girl. I've got cousins your size; I'll bring something along next time. In the meantime," Kal sat on the branch next to Raina and dug through his pack for two lengths of string. "They're for lacing boots," he explained as he started to tie one of them around her knee, "Always have extra if you're going to be wandering the woods. If one of mine were to break I'd lose the whole boot." He looped the lace back and forth over the baggy legs of her pants until they were tied in close to her leg from her knee to her ankle. "There we go. Good old Kreel ingenuity. My father would be proud."

"Your father must always be proud, you being the Brughar and all." Raina hoisted herself up and flexed her knee experimentally to see if the strings would hold.

"Who knows? I'm brughar now and he's just a village Nehir. Our relationship is strictly professional. He has barely acknowledged I'm his son since I came of age." Raina studied his face. He was staring into the distance as if to choose where they would go next.

"Don't you live with him, with your family?"

"Not anymore. I sleep in my own hut just on the village frontier, and spend the rest of the time either on patrol or visiting the village kitchens and halls. When I became Brughar I became a man, and accepted all that came with it."

"That sounds really lonely." Raina said quietly.

"Let's get higher up. I can't see a thing from here."

With her pants now safely tied up, Raina and Kal moved with no real urgency up through the trees until they could no longer see the ground through the tangled branches below.

"What are we looking for?" Raina asked. "Sign of another cat?"

"No," Kal glanced around them and listened intently for a moment. "I want to stalk other hunters. I - Kreel - are not usually awake at this time of day. We live and hunt at night. I thought... well, if whoever shot that skycat isn't Kreel, they'd be more likely to be out this time of day."

Raina nodded. "Where do we start?"

Kal bit his lip and thought. "Let's skirt the town here. We can spy out any hunting parties who might be coming in, or catch their trail where they entered."

"You think it was Keissarians, don't you?"

"I'm sorry, Raina. I've spoken to the other village brughar, and they say the arrow came from none of their people. It's just that... well, if it isn't Kreel, there isn't really anyone else, is there? Your city is the only one around for."

"I know. I'd thought so too, but..." Raina trailed off, then confirmed her resolve. "We don't even have bows, Kal. We don't hunt. We don't eat anything but Baz. We don't even come into the woods. Most of us."

"Your people have already come into the woods, Raina. The Padravana covered half your city just two years ago." Kal looked her square in the eye, and looked sad.